If Su Ning knew, she might say, "Thanks for the compliment." Unfortunately, she had no time right now to pay attention to a stranger far away in Nanjing. Sunlight poured through the huge glass windows, illuminating the photographs spread all over the table.
"It is beautiful, truly beautiful."
"Look at this viscous state; it is definitely top-grade petroleum."
"It is just that the photography skills are not great. Look here, a lot of it is blocked. Who wants to see their dirty faces? Honestly, we want to see the oil, the oil!"
Several experts in the field were engaged in a heated discussion. Ye Tang was also surging with excitement. Click, click! She changed postures, moving back, forth, left, and right to capture images of every single photograph.
"Miss Su, can I go to the site for an interview and photoshoot?"
It was a passionate plea.
Hearing this, Su Ning casually set down the bottled, pitch-black, viscous oily substance.
Instantly, several eager gazes glued themselves to her.
"The conditions there are very harsh."
Ye Tang was just feeling anxious about whether her request was too much, but upon hearing this, she shook her head desperately.
"It is fine, I can endure hardship. Before, to grab a news story, I could run dozens of miles a day, filling my stomach with cold water and plain rice. I have even squatted in garbage dumps and weed patches..."
Listening to the female lead wrack her brains to describe how much hardship she could endure, Su Ning could not help but sigh with emotion.
In the original novel, she became a teacher after returning to the country. Although she was dedicated to that job, she had nowhere near the passion she now had as a reporter... Her face was tanned to a wheat color, and while her figure was not exactly robust, it was by no means frail. The muscle lines on her arms were clearly visible... It was evident she had worked incredibly hard to chase down news.
So, would she still follow the original plot?
Su Ning smiled faintly.
Marrying first and falling in love later, engaging in household schemes, fighting concubines, fighting the mother-in-law, and in the process gradually winning the wholehearted love of a powerful and aloof husband...
"Alright, I agree."
"...There was one time I did not eat for two days and finally managed to stake out... Really?"
Ye Tang simply could not believe it.
After receiving confirmation, it was as if fireworks were exploding one after another in her mind. She was so happy she did not know what to do, only able to thank Su Ning over and over again.
She did not know about newspapers in other places.
However, the common consensus among the Beiping newspaper agencies was: whenever it involved Miss Su, one must be exceedingly careful.
Never cross the line even by a single step!
Seeing her succeed, the several experts temporarily brought in from Beiping nudged each other until finally, a bold one stepped forward.
"Um, Miss Su, actually, our exploration and mining technology is also quite good. I and that guy surnamed Yan, no, I mean, Brother Yan, have had in-depth exchanges and learning experiences in the past. He must be struggling to support everything on his own in Yumen. I am willing to go and help him."
"Me too."
"Right, speaking of which, I am Old Yan's senior brother. We get along very well."
"Although Brother Yan and I have never met, we have been kindred spirits for a long time, and I admire him greatly. For this, I am willing to take half the salary to go be his assistant!"
The last person, having wracked his brains and failed to find a connection, bit the bullet and unleashed his ultimate move.
The others glared at him.
Despicable, scab, traitor.
He looked back without the slightest guilt. Must be joking, that was oil! Oil! A shocking discovery that would shatter the international narrative that China had no oil fields!
Let alone a fifty percent pay cut, even if they had to bring their own rations to work, there would be plenty of people fighting tooth and nail to go.
The others also realized this.
Gritting their teeth, they followed suit.
"I only want half too."
"...One third."
Just like that, they fiercely competed with each other, rolling up their sleeves like fighting cocks until their eyes were red and their voices were hoarse, only to realize that the person who could make the final decision had not expressed any stance from beginning to end.
Everyone felt a bit apprehensive.
Although this lady deserved the vast majority of the credit for discovering the oil.
On a grander scale.
She would definitely be recorded in future history books.
But equally, everyone knew how difficult her personality was to deal with. Unfortunately, back when the industry generally badmouthed Su Ning's oil exploration in Yumen.
They were among those people.
Miss Su would not be that petty, right... What if they were doomed to fail?
Little did they know, Su Ning was currently whispering with her system.
"None of them are sincere. To be China's first batch of oil extraction personnel, shocking the nation and the world, with such a huge honor, no one is actually willing to work for free. How lamentable, how infuriating."
System: ...
Do you dare say that out loud? Working for free, do you want their whole families to starve?
Ummmm.
So, Su Ning was just sighing about it. How could such a good person like her actually do that? It was not like they were plot characters like Cheng Xia, where if the environment got a bit more hellish, rewards would just gush out.
Thus, the nearly despairing NPC experts heard the most beautiful voice of their lives.
"I will take all of you."
They looked up in pleasant surprise.
"As for talk of pay cuts, I do not want to hear it again." Miss Su curled the corners of her lips, her smile carrying a hint of disdain. "If word gets out, people might think I am harsh and stingy."
Did word even need to get out?
Just kidding.
In short, the experts were overjoyed, but in the next second, their extreme joy turned to sorrow. Su Ning was going to recruit many, many more peers. Who would get to speak and make decisions, and who would have to take orders, depended not only on technical ability but also on whether they could convince the masses.
On-site and off-site factors were equally important.
One could only imagine what an arduous and grueling battle of wits and schemes this would be.
"Ding..."
Do not misunderstand, the system was not broadcasting.
This was a sound effect Su Ning made to amuse herself. She lowered her eyes, took a sip of tea, and chuckled. She was doing this to cultivate talents for China's future oilfield development, definitely not because she felt that even a mosquito's leg was still meat...
...
As the saying goes.
The cicada senses the autumn wind before it blows. The first people to know about Su Ning successfully discovering oil would always be her enemies. Others, such as Madame Kong, were a step late in getting the news.
Let alone Yan Jianchu's miserable peers.
"Say, how do you think Old Yan is doing in Yumen? I have been to that place before. It is in the middle of nowhere, does not rain all year round, and there is nothing but sand. He really went all out."
It was another gathering of peers, and as they chatted, the topic shifted to this again.
"Even eating sand is worth it. That Miss Su pays him this much a month."
Someone made a hand gesture.
The tone was thirty percent sour and seventy percent jealous.
They were all in the same line of work, and everyone was equally poor. For him to suddenly strike it rich by dumb luck, who could resist feeling a bit sour?
"This money is not just for eating sand; he also has to risk his reputation. I am a man of principle. I would rather eat bran and swallow vegetables than run errands for the rich and powerful for a few pecks of rice!"
Someone spoke with impassioned indignation.
It drew a round of applause. Suddenly, someone from this man's family came looking for him, saying there was an urgent matter.
He stepped outside.
"What! They really dug up oil... And there are photos and physical samples."
He suddenly covered his mouth, lowered his voice, and asked his son, who had brought the news, with a slight tremble, "Your Uncle Li even invited me to go work there with the same salary as Old Yan... Oh, Old Yan's salary doubled, but that is not important. The important thing is, you are not making this up, right?"
"I could not make this up even if I wanted to."
The son felt very wronged.
His father worked in this bitter and poor industry, so the family had strictly warned him never to get involved in it.
"Good, I understand."
He was dizzy, stumbling back with unsteady steps. When people asked him about the sky, he answered about the earth. He just sat there giggling foolishly, leaving his peers quite puzzled.
Then, someone from another man's family came looking for him.
A moment later.
He returned looking just like the first guy, sitting there and giggling.
Hehehe.
Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth. They all looked at each other, sitting face to face, giggling foolishly.
"Well, consider what I said earlier as total bullshit. I'm going to work for Miss Su."
"I was talking bullshit too."
"Me too..."
...
Meanwhile.
In a cozy little courtyard, Yan Jianchu's wife received an expensive expedited package. Several children gathered around, making a ruckus.
"Mother, open it quickly! Is Father coming back?"
"Maybe there's candy inside."
"Idiot, it's so thin, how could there be candy?"
The wife smiled, though with a hint of a sigh. As expected, a high-paying job wouldn't last long. She looked down and opened the letter. The first thing that caught her eye was a flattened dried flower, its shape graceful, almost as if she could still smell its blooming fragrance.
"Wow!"
The children exclaimed.
"What are you yelling for?"
The wife blushed. The letter explained the flower's origin: an unnamed wild flower blooming in the wilderness of Yumen. He thought it was beautiful, so he pressed it into a dried flower and sent it along.
Of course, besides the flower, there was also a bank slip. The number on it made the wife's eyes widen.
An unbelievable number.
"Mother, Father really found oil!"
At this moment, the oldest child saw the next line of text and cried out in surprise.
In a place even noisier and poorer than here.
Yulan finished washing clothes and was preparing to hang them out to dry.
A few gossipy neighbors saw her like mice seeing white rice. They raised their voices and asked, "Yulan, you had your birthday yesterday. You're almost twenty-one now, right? When will we get to drink at your wedding?"
Without even turning her head, Yulan replied:
"Auntie Wang, don't worry. You'll definitely get to drink at my wedding before you die."
"How can you speak like that, you wretched girl!"
Auntie Wang immediately got anxious.
"An unmarriageable old spinster with a cruel and toxic mouth! I bet that poor fiancé of yours ran away just to hide from you. Even if that's not the case, your cursed mouth will probably bring him to an early grave out there."
"If that were really the case, you'd be the first one cursed to death, Auntie Wang, since you listen to me flap my lips every day," Yulan said, unhurried and unpanicked.
The other neighbors burst into laughter.
Suddenly, the postman arrived, shouting to ask who Sun Yulan was.
"That's me."
Yulan knew how to read; Little Zhao had taught her. Not long after she opened the letter and read it, she squatted on the ground and burst into loud sobs. The others were completely baffled.
"Could he really be dead?"
Auntie Wang gloated.
The next second, Yulan jumped up and slapped her so hard she fell to the ground. She spat in her face for good measure. "Pah! Even if your whole family died, he wouldn't die! My fiancé found oil! He even got a raise, and he said he's coming back to marry me as soon as he gets time off!"
Tears glistened on the young woman's smiling, uplifted face.
Similar scenes were happening one after another.
...
Nanjing city was only so big.
Soon, the news that Su Ning had discovered oil spread. In less than an hour, everyone who needed to know knew. There were those filled with regret and remorse, and those who could only sigh.
"Where is Su Ning?"
"She's not in Nanjing, that's for sure."
"Beiping."
"She's in Beiping."
"Something as huge as finding oil has happened, why is she still in Beiping... Could she really be so heartbroken and disappointed that she doesn't want to do business with us anymore?"
There was a moment of silence.
"It's all the fault of that damn Yu Tai, and those Japanese who misled us with their extravagant theories."
"That's right, it's all their fault."
"Miss Su wouldn't be that petty, would she?"
Whether she was petty or not was a matter of opinion, but regardless, she was in Beiping, not Nanjing. This made everyone pace around anxiously, and finally, they unanimously went to seek help from Madame Kong.
